Air Canada Fight Is Still On

Published: June - 2006

Last month, we called for a boycott of Air Canada when the airline announced plans to charge hunters and shooters a special "handling fee" for firearms effective June 1. The fee is a whopping $65 CAD one way. We asked Hunting Report subscribers to protest this fee by sending us e-mails, so we could forward the complaints to Air Canada President and CEO Montie Brewer. At this count, we have sent more than 200 protest e-mails to Brewer and every day is turning up new ones.

You may want to know that Brewer and his Senior Vice President of Customer Service, David Tait, both corresponded with us, and even called our offices. But they did so only to defend their actions, saying the handling of firearms requires "extra procedures" that add "significant complexity" to their baggage handling procedures. "This fee is a fair reflection of the incremental processes that are involved and is consistent with our other special handling fees," Tait wrote us in an e-mail early last month.

We shared all this last month with Safari Club International and the National Rifle Association, and we are delighted to report that they have jumped into the fight with a stern joint letter urging Air Canada to reconsider this fee. It warns Brewer that the NRA and SCI together represent more than four million sportsmen and women worldwide. Persisting with plans to impose the fee, the letter says, will leave the NRA and SCI "... no choice but to inform our respective memberships of your decision, and to provide them with information about alternative transportation providers who do not single out traveling firearm owners to impose discriminatory fees."

You can read the complete letter yourself on our web site (www. huntingreport.com). Scroll down to E-mail Extra Bulletins and click on "NRA and SCI Join Air Canada Battle." It's important to understand that the entry of the NRA and SCI into this battle does not insure victory. If Air Canada wins this fight, you can be assured that other airlines will follow suit with exorbitant fees........(continued)